RGB Products
RESEARCH
Air Mass
VIIRS/CrIS RGB image used to detect moisture, cloud cover, and synoptic-scale features associated with air masses.
RESEARCH
Dust
RGB image used to identify dust plumes that are being lofted into the lower atmosphere.
Across the NWS regions, capabilities new to operational polar satellites such as the generation of natural and false color red-green-blue (RGB) composites and the detection of atmospheric and surface features at night with the low light channel will be evaluated. The low light visible channel, enhanced from that first used on the DOD OLS, can address snow cover, airborne dust, smoke and clouds, city lights, fires and lightning at night. The VIIRS spectral channels will allow for the calculation of 6 of the 8 standard RGB composites shown by EUMETSAT and others to be of significant value in diagnostic weather analysis.
SPoRT is developing a suite of products from S-NPP in order to demonstrate future capabilities of similar instruments aboard JPSS (Table 1). JPSS will supplement visible and infrared channels currently available on GOES, those expected from the launch of GOES-R, and data available from MODIS and S-NPP if these polar orbiters remain fully functional during the JPSS era. To improve the use of additional spectral bands in the JPSS era, SPoRT is developing additional false color, or "RGB" composites from VIIRS and CrIS data to demonstrate future JPSS capabilities. Several RGB composite products have been developed by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) with demonstrated applications for their SEVIRI instrument flown aboard Meteosat-9. EUMETSAT has developed a series of products and recipes that can be applied to combinations of VIIRS and CrIS data to demonstrate new applications of multispectral data and to prepare forecasters for the JPSS era.
| RGB Product | MODIS Channels or Differences for R,G,B | VIIRS Channels | SEVIRI Channels | Applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Mass | 27-28, 30-31, 27 (inverted) | C6.197-C7.299*, C9.703*-M15,C6.197* (inverted) | 5-6, 8-9, 6 (inverted) | Jet Streaks, PV Analysis |
| Day/Night Band | DNB, M15 | Clouds | ||
| Daytime Convective Storms | 5-6, 4-9, 3-1 | Severe Weather, Water Vapor In/Outflow | ||
| Daytime Snow-Fog | 3, 2, 12 (solar: 4, 9, and 11) | Snow Melt, Ice Jams | ||
| Daytime Microphysics | 2, 12 (solar: 4, 9, and 11), 9 | Convective, Fog, Fire | ||
| Dust | 32-31, 31-29, 31 | M16-M15, M15-M14, M15 | 10-9, 9-7, 9 | Differential Dust from Cloud |
| False Color | 3, 6, 7 | M3, M10, M11 | Snow, ice, clouds | |
| Natural Color (Land Cover) | 3, 2, 1 | Ice/Water Cloud, Vegetation | ||
| Nighttime Microphysics | 32-31, 31-20, 31 | M16-M15, M15-M12, M15 | 10-9, 9-4, 9 | Fog/Low Stratus, Thin Cirrus |
| True Color | 1, 4, 3 | M5, M4, M3 | Smoke, Land Surface Changes | |
| * C6.197, C7.299, and C9.703 are corresponding channels from CrIS | ||||
These RGB products include dust detection, day and night-time microphysical imagery to detect cloud properties, true and natural color images to monitor atmospheric and surface features, and a snow/fog discrimination product. The RGB capabilities will also allow for the detection of atmospheric moisture, aerosols and dust, and cloud features not readily observed in a single channel. VIIRS data will be combined with CrIS data to compute two other RGB products (air mass and convective storm).
Figure 1: Sample MODIS and VIIRS/CrIS Air Mass RGBs
